Karl Malone used to guarantee that the Jazz would win a game/series. Mindful of fueling the fire on the Rockets' bulletin board (Salt Lake Tribune) , they're a wee bit more subtle now. "Veteran guard Derek Fisher believes the Jazz youth's actually works in their favor, giving them the ability to "fluff it off" after a tough defeat. Illustrating Fisher's point, second-year guard Deron Williams said his response to Game 5 was to "sleep on it, wake up . . . you can't dwell on it, because we've got more games to play." Yes, he said games. Now that the Mailman's gone, that's as close to a guarantee as you'll get from these guys." (from today's Salt Lake Tribune) The Jazz are convinced that they are the better team; that Game 5 was somehow stolen from them ("We feel like we let Game 5 slip away," Boozer said.); that they are more deserving. The Utah players have said that they will do "everything and anything" to win tonight, whether it's legal or whatever. They're still lobbying the refs, from Sloan on down. Let's keep 'em in Utah!
They probably are convinced they are better because they played us close in three games at home, and blew us out twice in Utah, and tonights game happens to be in Utah. Besides, McGrady said "the deciding game" twice after game five, didn't he?